October 15, 2010

Elite Homes, Inc. builds partnership to collect 20 tons of food for area children and families

Louisville, KY., October 13, 2010 –

Elite Homes, Inc., announces “Stuff That Bus!” a high-profile food drive in partnership with Metro United Way, Dare To Care, TARC, and the Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS). Other project partners include: Gordon Food Service (GFS) and Mattingly Foods. The “Stuff That Bus!” food drive starts this Saturday, October 16, at the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Pep Rally to be held at Highview Baptist Church, 15201 Shelbyville Road in Louisville, from 10:00 am until Noon. The public is encouraged to attend (and bring cans of food!). The TARC bus to be filled will be on display at the Pep Rally. “We aim to tap the overwhelming community support we anticipate for the upcoming Extreme Makeover: Home Edition build and turn it into food for our area’s folks who are in need. We will stuff a TARC bus full of non-perishable food in the next three weeks!” said Joseph “Joey” Pusateri, Permitting and Closing Specialist at Louisville’s Elite Homes, Inc. Pusateri is the son of Joe Pusateri, president and founder of Elite Homes.

“Our collected food will benefit Dare to Care Food Bank and its programs, especially Kids Cafe, that support children and their families. We know everyone who attends the Extreme Makover: Home Edition Pep Rally on Saturday the 16th, or who comes out to visit the awesome home being built in a week won’t mind bringing at least one can of food to help others. We’re sure many will bring as many cans of food as they can carry. Then we can start to ‘Stuff That Bus!’” Pusateri said.

Area collection points include: all Jefferson County Public Schools and Louisville area GFS Marketplace Store locations. Members of the public who want to travel to view the construction at Elite Homes’ Extreme Makeover: Home Edition construction site are encouraged to bring at least one can of food per person to the transportation site, where they will travel by TARC bus to the build. The location of the transportation site will be disclosed after the lucky family is contacted by Ty Pennington and the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition design team. The “Stuff That Bus!” food drive’s goal of 20 tons of food certainly captures the extremely large spirit of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Elite Homes’ partners in the food drive are excited about participating in “Stuff That Bus!”

Brett Michel, General Manager of Gordon Food Service is pleased to help again, saying “This is the second time GFS has been involved. It was such a great experience in 2007! While we’re not swinging hammers to help Elite Homes build the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition house, we’re doing what we do best - Gordon Food Service offers such a wide variety of nutritious food, we’re happy to help provide our food to area children who are in need.” Jackie Pineo, GFS Assistant Manager agreed, saying “GFS Marketplace® is pleased to be part of a great community service project like ‘Stuff That Bus!’ We believe in serving our community and are proud to support a great organization like Dare to Care.” “TARC is honored to provide a bus during the Extreme Makeover Home Edition build in Louisville and we urge everyone to help stuff it with food for the Dare to Care program. Let’s make this another big community success,” said J. Barry Barker, executive director of TARC and this year’s voluntary chairman of the Metro United Way campaign.

Stephen Hall of Mattingly Foods agreed, saying “We look forward to working on the ‘Stuff That Bus!’ project and we are excited Elite Homes thought of us as the right partner to accomplish something so worthwhile.” Brian Riendeau, Executive Director of Dare to Care explains the significance of the partnership this way: “Kentuckiana faces a crisis where nearly 200,000 people needed food assistance in the past year, a 67% increase in four years. We have been able to address this crisis because our community has united and provided Dare to Care the support we need. Elite Homes spearheading ‘Stuff That Bus!’ is another example of Kentuckiana’s unique generosity.”

JCPS Superintendent Sheldon Berman explains the school system’s participation, saying, “Social responsibility is a big part of the work we emphasize among JCPS students and employees. Participating in ‘Stuff That Bus!’ is an excellent way for our students and employees to demonstrate their sense of caring for our community.” Metro United Way’s Kelly Garvey said “We are excited to partner with Elite Homes and Dare to Care Food Bank during the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition build to help connect people to volunteer to ensure children in our communities are well fed in order to succeed in school.”

Because hunger is a real problem in Metro Louisville (and across the nation) Why has “Stuff That Bus!” focused on Dare to Care Kid’s Cafe? Because if children aren’t healthy, with access to good nutritional meals, they have no chance of success in the classroom or in life. One in five Kentuckiana children are at risk of going to bed without the food they need to live a heathy life. Over 70,000 children locally received food assistance from Dare to Care Food Bank in the past year. Intellectual and emotional development are threatened by this unacceptable level of food insecurity among our youth.

About Elite Homes, Inc. Elite Homes, Inc., founded in 1976, is a prominent home building company in the Louisville, Kentucky area, designing and building or remodeling 40 - 75 custom homes a year ranging in price from $250,000 to over $1,000,000.

About Metro United Way Metro United Way’s mission is to improve lives by mobilizing the caring power of our community. For over 90 years, Metro United Way has worked diligently to create the most vital, caring community in the nation, while at the same time respecting the diversity that makes our community unique. When you invest in your community through Metro United Way, you help to advance the common good by focusing on education, income and health. These are the building blocks for a good life-a quality education that leads to a stable job, enough income to support a family through retirement, and good health. With our agencies and partners, we help provide vital services to individuals and families and connect people to needed services through 2-1-1. We also prepare our youngest children to enter school ready to succeed with programs like Success By 6 and the Gheens Bridges to Tomorrow Initiative, which simultaneously coaches students’ parents in the principles of fiscal responsibility. Metro United Way serves a seven-county area that includes Jefferson, Oldham, Shelby and Bullitt counties in Kentucky, and Floyd, Harrison and Clark counties in Indiana.

About Fifth Third Bancorp Fifth Third Bancorp is a diversified financial services company headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Company has $116 billion in assets, operates 16 affiliates with 1,306 full-service Banking Centers, including 99 Bank Mart locations open seven days a week inside select grocery stores and 2,355 ATMs in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Florida, Tennessee, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Georgia and North Carolina. Fifth Third operates four main businesses: Commercial Banking, Branch Banking, Consumer Lending, and Investment Advisors. Fifth Third also has a 49% interest in Fifth Third Processing Solutions, LLC. Fifth Third is among the largest money managers in the Midwest and, as of June 30, 2009, has $180 billion in assets under care, of which it managed $24 billion for individuals, corporations and not-for-profit organizations. Investor information and press releases can be viewed at www.53.com. Fifth Third’s common stock is traded on the NASDAQ National Global Select Market under the symbol “FITB.”

About ABC-TVs Extreme Makeover: Home Edition The Emmy award winning reality program Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, now in its 8th season, is produced by Endemol USA, a division of Endemol Holding. It’s executive-produced by Brady Connell and George Verschoor. David Goldberg is Chairman, Endemol North America. The show airs Sundays from 8:00-9:00 p.m., ET on ABC.

October 14, 2010

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is coming back to Louisville. And local construction companies are coming together for the project of building a home from the ground up for a local family. Elite Built Homes and brothers Joe and Rocky Pusateri lead the effort for a second time. In 2007, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition came to Louisville and gave a new home to Patrick Henry Hughes.

Now, they are looking for volunteers and craftsman willing to donate time and materials for a project to begin on October 23rd. A pep rally and volunteer meeting is set for Saturday, October 16th from 10 a.m. to noon at the Highview Baptist Church at 12123 Shelbyville Road.

If someone wants to know how they can help the builders, the family or just show their support for the project, they are invited them to come out. Anyone interested should go to www.EliteBuiltHomes.com for information.

Metro mayor candidates Greg Fischer and Hal Heiner plan to attend the pep rally and will be introduced to the crowd.

They also have a community service project in conjunction with the build called, "Stuff the Bus". Elite Built Homes are partnering with the Metro United Way and Dare to Care to fill a TARC bus at the rally with food. There will be a food drive in all the JCPS schools to collect food for the Kids Café after the build.

October 13, 2010

We have less than 2 weeks before the identity of the recipient family and location of the build will be revealed.

We have trade meetings scheduled all day on Tuesday October 12 and Wednesday October 13 from 8am to 6pm with all of our subcontractors and suppliers.

There is a community pep rally on Saturday October 16th @ Highview Baptist (Shelbyville Road) from 10am to noon. The pace is picking up. The excitement is building. We hope to have a full house at the pep rally as we enter the final week of preparation.

October 5, 2010

Our company is very excited to be working with the Extreme Makeover team again to help a deserving family in our community. What is so remarkable and gratifying, has been the response of all the companies as we have reached out for their help. Despite the difficult economic conditions, with very few exceptions, our requests for help have been met with a resounding "YES".

To help the family with expenses, we have a limited edition black t-shirt, available at all 5th 3rd branches, for anyone making a donation of $20 or more. Our website will be updated daily as more information becomes available and events are scheduled. We also will use it to publicize where we need additional help for the upcoming build.